Different types of Therapeutic Approaches

The core of my practice is the PC approach, but I integrate other approaches into my ‘toolkit’ depending on suitability to client and the presenting issues.

Person-Centred Approach

Often referred to as a humanist approach because the focus is on the individual and their human experience. This therapeutic approach allows the client to work at their own pace and with the material they want to work on. The approach allows the individual to self-discover and to gain personal insight and awareness. The therapist is alongside the client and actively listens to ‘be with’ the client. Both the therapist and client work at relational depth, and empathic understanding and non-judgementalism are at the core of this approach.

Emotion Focused Therapy

This approach explores primary emotions that individuals experience. For example, sadness, guilt and shame. The principles of EMT are that humans experience emotions which impact on interactions and relationships. The approach explores how often primary emotions become masked by secondary emotions such as reactive anger. The focus is upon interactional patterns and cycles and addresses new ways of emotionally responding. The approach incorporates issues of attachment and considers ways to reframe interactional responses by accessing these primary emotions. This approach is useful when working with relational issues such as romantic relationships, food, identity and so on.

Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy

This approach draws on the connection between cognition, emotion and behaviour. The belief is that our thoughts will guide our physical and emotional responses, which will then have a behaviour consequence. In this approach the therapist directs the client towards challenge to allow the client to explore more helpful thought processes, and in doing so more useful emotional, physical and action responses to different situations and circumstances. The core model intervention applied in this approach is the ABCD model.

Solution Focused Therapy

This approach is focused on solution rather than problem. It allows the client to consider times when the problem has not been present, and to spot these occasions to build further resilience and coping mechanisms. This approach celebrates strengths and is concerned with transferring existing skills from past experiences and adapting them into new situations. There are many techniques within this approach, and the focus is on discovering useful ways to allow the client to move forward and to sustain long term change.

Systemic Therapy

The focus of this approach is on the individual and the wider systems that they are part of. It considers multiple perspectives and develops an understanding of different ways of seeing and experiencing a situation. The gain of this is to acknowledge difference and to enable more helpful interactions in the contexts to which the individual belongs. The therapist holds a curious perspective with the client (s) and uses different interventions and questioning to encourage wholistic understanding of self and others.